Red Oak Park's condition illustrates how not to plan subdivisions: Let it be a case study and protect what's good about it

Ward 4 meeting from Nov. 30 running again on City 16. Sounds like there may be a move to put the money in a new nearby park. If people would agree to leave the "critical recharge area" alone and enjoy the trees and wildlife, then they could go enjoy "park amenities" less than a mile to the east.
There was confusion in the minds of many when Sarah Lewis spoke about using raingardens in yards to keep the water from rushing into the park in such huge amounts. No one really has worked with owners of land upstream to convince them to make some of the inexpensive changes in the management of land on their property to catch some of the water.

To summarize: Nothing but catching the majority of water upstream will fully protect the park. No tree-removal or streambed work will stop the problems downstream. It makes more sense to keep the beautiful wildlife and wildflower area. It  costs little to bring in more native plants to embellish the natural experience there. Kids need to experience a natural area as much as they need ball fields and playground gadgets.
The reason we have developers building such environmentally unsound subdivisions as the ones that created the problem of erosion in the Red Oak Park is that far too many people grow up without learning how water flows and plants and trees grow and how wildlife can coexist with human beings.
The city  can't put the builders of such areas on trial, but it is possible to educate current and future builders to create only low-impact projects. And the park's situation is strong evidence to support developing stronger ordinances to REQUIRE adequate stormwater controls and eliminate curb and street gutters that route water rapidly downstream. The only reason retrofitting the neighborhoods to hold their own water is that red dirt was used to raise and fill so many of the lots. It would not be expensive to find out how much absorbent (pervious) soil remains in those areas.
Red Oak Park's situation is another study site on how NOT TO plan a subdivision.